Each year Audrey’s, a chocolate shop in East Sussex, makes almost 2,000
Easter eggs for Fortnum & Mason. Francesca Ryan goes behind the
scenes.

'That egg is quite expensive to buy, but when you look at the quality of the work, and the two layers, you’re getting an Easter egg that you would have got 40 years ago,’ says David Burns, the head chocolatier and managing director of Audrey’s, a chocolate shop in Hove, East Sussex, which has been making Easter eggs for Fortnum & Mason since 1984. When I visited Audrey’s in February, staff were halfway through their Easter production – Audrey’s will supply Fortnum’s with 1,900 eggs (some hand-decorated, some filled with rose and violet creams) and 4,000 chocolate figurines (rabbits, ducks and hens). For Burns it is his favourite time of year. 'I really like it because you see something from start to finish,’ he said. 'And when you go to Fortnum’s and look at all the stuff you’ve made, it’s like… I can’t really believe I do that.’

Freshly set bunnies ready to be decorated (Pic: Ben Quinton)

Audrey’s was founded in 1961 by William Pain, who had worked at Fortnum & Mason’s chocolate factory in Piccadilly, and his wife, Clarice, to sell handmade chocolates. In 1983, after chocolate manufacture had come to an end in Piccadilly, Audrey’s signed a contract with Fortnum’s. David Burns joined Audrey’s 10 years later, and three years on was made a director. In 2002 he bought out the last shareholder. Audrey’s now employs 24 people, including Burns’s wife, Keeley, who manages the office. Today 70 per cent of Audrey’s output is for Fortnum’s, while its own-brand Easter eggs, selection boxes, loose chocolates and handmade chocolate bars are sold in the Hove shop.

In the four-storey Georgian house where Audrey’s is situated, the intoxicating smell of chocolate hangs thick in the air. There is a production room for each specialism – from the starch room (fondant creams), to the enrobing room (enrobing of fondants), the flower room (sugar flowers) and the packing room (chocolates are packed inside the eggs in the old-fashioned way, rather than in plastic trays). Whereas most modern Easter eggs are made in centrifugal machines to keep them uniform, at Audrey’s they are hand-dipped, hand-filled and hand-moulded.

In the kitchen, where Jeff Edwards, 30, who originally trained as a patisserie chef, was using a hairdrier to blow hot air into an egg mould, Burns showed me a chocolate eggshell that would be filled with rose and violet creams. 'You can see you’ve got two layers of chocolate in the shell – in mass-produced eggs you get only one layer. You paint your first coating and leave it to set. Then you flood it with chocolate and tip it upside down to set. Next you trim the edges by hand with a knife, so that it’s nice and smooth. I don’t ever eat an Easter egg, I take the trimmings. The best milk chocolate is Audrey’s trimmings,’ Burns said.

The rose and violet cream eggs, with their distinct true egg shape (modern eggs are more pointed) are made in metal moulds from the 1930s. 'These are the old moulds Mr Pain used,’ Burns said. 'He was in his 80s and I was 31 and trained in all the modern techniques, whereas he was all about handmade – such as using copper pans to make caramels. I would never have dreamt of that. It seemed like a backwards step, but in fact it was a forward step because I was learning so much. Mr Pain had all the old-fashioned techniques that worked for this business, and we’ve carried on using them.’

Using recipes and moulds inherited from Mr Pain, Audrey’s makes 13 types of fondant creams, with natural flavours, oils and colours. It is a method that, as far as Natalie Griggs, the confectionery buyer at Fortnum’s, knows, had completely died out. 'We work with chocolatiers all over the UK, and I’ve never heard of anyone using starch anymore,’ she told me. 'There’s only one way to get a cream like we do,’ Burns said, 'but you’ve got to use starch. People are put off by the time and cost involved, compared with using a machine, and it can be messy.’

Crafting flowers for decoration (Pic: Ben Quinton)

The level of care at every stage of chocolate production at Audrey’s is hypnotic to watch. In the starch room Malcolm Webber, 55, who started as a porter at Audrey’s in 1988 before being trained up by Burns, was hand-brushing corn starch off fondant creams. 'The creams are better now than they’ve ever been,’ Burns said. 'He’s got it right and he loves doing it.’

At the top of the house is the flower room, where silver trays are littered with rainbow-coloured sugar flowers that will decorate eggs and figurines. Here, using white chocolate mixed with liquid glucose, Jenny O’Shea and Sue Mann patiently create dollshouse-sized carnations and roses. Each decorated egg is unique, and most feature a sugar bee, a nod to the beehives on the roof of Fortnum’s. In the two hours that I was there, Mann, who has worked for Audrey’s for 19 years, made decorations for, and decorated, 43 rabbits. Sugarcraft is a traditional artisan skill, and you imagine it might be difficult to find skilled staff to take the place of O’Shea and Mann. 'Because they are coming to retirement, I’ve got an agreement with them that when they do retire they spend at least two weeks making the flowers for me,’ Burns said, laughing.

Fondant cream moulds inherited from Mr Pain (Pic: Ben Quinton)

And then there are the chocolate bunnies. Audrey’s has been making the same chocolate bunny for Fortnum’s for 30 years, but over the years Burns has adapted it. There are now six types (with a knapsack, basket, eggs and so on), each hand-decorated. This year’s boy bunny has a collar and tie, while the girl bunny has more colourful flowers. 'The figurines are made to showcase the chocolate,’ Burns said. For Fortnum’s Burns uses his tercentenary blend, which he created five years ago for its 300th anniversary. A mix of Tanzanian and Mexican cocoa beans, it is remarkably unbitter. 'It’s quite smooth, it’s not dry,’ Keeley said, 'and it leaves a great aftertaste of fruit that hits the back of your throat. It has a really good length of flavour.’

In a sense Burns has come full circle. Mr and Mrs Pain, who both died in 1997, had no children, were looking for someone to carry on the business; David and Keeley have no children, and Burns worries about the future of Audrey’s. 'There is nobody to take this over,’ he said. But his retirement is a long way off, so for now he is excited about a new chocolate line Audrey’s is working on with Fortnum’s. Keeley’s grandmother, who used to run a haberdasher’s, died three years ago. In the loft they found her old stock, and chose 25 of the buttons to have made into moulds. 'It’s such a fantastic story,’ Burns said. Fortnum’s will be selling jars of Nana’s chocolate buttons later this year. 'All I ever wanted was my own chocolate shop, my own chocolate blend and my own moulds, and I’ve done all three. Now I just want to make some money!’